Clarity creates trust

Lockdown Learnings #3

BoJo’s muddled messaging shows the stark need for communication clarity.

Here’s some lockdown learnings on the anatomy of trust, Twitter announcing WFH forever, and what the absence of FOMO means for brands.

Stay alert? What do you mean “Stay alert”?

“Stay at home” was a catchy slogan that we all understood. The majority of the population stoically obeyed these three words, and brands began to evangelise it in their adverts. “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives” was a winner. The “Just Do It” of government comms, that in many ways generated feelings of purpose, clarity, trust, and unity. Despite unfathomable blunders and seismic shortcomings around testing and PPE, the key message was a corker and provided at least one element of respectability to the national response. 

This week’s follow-up campaign hasn’t gone quite so well. Key markets (Scotland, Wales, Ireland) are refusing to adopt this centralised message. Nicola Sturgeon said it would be "catastrophic" to drop "Stay home", and described the new message as "vague and imprecise", while Keir Starmer has accused the prime minister of not giving the public "clear directions".

A YouGov poll of more than 6,500 people conducted on Sunday and Monday found that just 30% of people said they felt they knew what the new slogan was asking them to do.

Granted, the intricate easing of lockdown perhaps doesn’t allow for a message with such clarity as to its predecessor. But it’s a timely reminder for brands that during times of such uncertainty and confusion that clear messaging – free of ambiguity or subjectivity – is deeply desired by the public. Now more than ever, clarity counts.

Clarity creates trust. Rachel Botsman, the first Trust Fellow at the University of Oxford, shared some compelling thoughts this week with Wired. “Trust is a confident relationship with the unknown” and has many different dimensions right now, in terms of how we feel about governments, leadership, science, technology, virtual teams, and ourselves.

Here are some thoughts are the key themes:

Empathy in communication builds trust. Leaders such as Jacinda Ardern and Angela Merkel have shown a high level of empathy, which has resonated well globally. Jacinda’s personal approach – hosting a Facebook Live Q&A from home, in an old jumper, after putting her toddler to bed – showed an openness, lack of fa?ade, and friendly approach. While other leaders have been colder or military-like in their tonality and approach, which may communicate power, or a veneer of control, but doesn’t build trust.

Transparency is tricky. And has to be well considered. The British government’s transparency has been muddled (like it’s messaging) in changing the numbers used for modelling and then sharing data without explaining why parameters used to judge it has changed, which has resulted in otherwise greater distrust.

The advice here is to be clear on the information you are holding back, and why. And if you can then say why you can’t share information if asked, in a clear way, that in itself will build trust.

Transparency is a good thing, but only when it’s easy to understand, and carries a clear message.

Innovation is still essential. This is a period of reinvention and in the future, we will see new ways of living and working implemented (see Twitter below) that were born from this time. As such brands need to say they are taking a long-term view, and that they continue to innovate. And if they can show any type of exciting progress (when things around them are on pause) their purpose and popularity will soar. 

Trust in tech will grow. And it will do so through necessity. People will be willing to take leaps of trust, towards AI, robots in care homes, and new forms of tech and delivery etc. that will enable our future lives. As long as it can’t be interfered with, or manipulated.

Trust in people will change. The NHS contact tracing app, if used by the whole or vast majority of the population, could provide invaluable data and help to lift the lockdown measures. However, it’s unlikely that it will be used by enough people to achieve this, due to (understandable) public fears around the security, privacy, use, and possible abuse of their data. In other words, the public trust tech and data, but simply don’t trust how Big Brother will use it, so are unlikely to be willing participants. 

Where else will trust erode? Will hygiene concerns mean that Airbnb will no longer be embraced? Or that ride-sharing with Uber or Lyft disappears? How will customers feel about other customers, in shops, restaurants and pubs when they eventually open under social-distancing measures? Things are likely to feel quite different, for quite some time. 

Twitter, meanwhile has just announced that they are allowing staff to work from home forever. This is a simple, but perfect way to turn crisis into opportunity. To make a positive change in the culture of an organisation, and stand out for doing so.

Google and Facebook said earlier this month that their staff can work from home until the end of the year. Now that Twitter has made this move, they stand out as the leading tech brand with an ‘employee first’ feel. It’s an era-defining moment. This is a new gold standard in workplace flexibility. And being first to make such a big move well and truly counts.  

Not to mention Jack Dorsey donating $1bn – more than anyone else – to help “disarm this pandemic”. Two moves that show breath-taking clarity and commitment.  

FOMO is AWOL. Finally, we feared about missing out on toilet paper and pasta, but since then the modern human Fear Of Missing Out has been largely absent. Our usual mindsets of holidays and places and parties and lifestyles that we crave to be part of is now on hold.

What does this mean for brands? It may mean going back to what you stand for, and that what you offer is more salient than ever. It’s a time when buying tech (or other) products is being done to rationally augment lockdown life. Not because a celebrity is showing it off.

In the UK sales of baking, products have seen the highest increase, while sports equipment sales have also risen. It’s now a simpler time of DIY cooking, exercise, and entertainment. 

Technology is a huge part of self-sufficiency and augmenting every day, in work, exercise, and leisure. So, for now, lifestyle and status symbol imagery and messaging have satisfyingly ceased, and the messages shared should be more about the down-to-earth difference the product or service makes, the human and emotional value it adds, and how it makes peoples’ days brighter, and better.

Here are the learnings in a nutshell:

1) The impact of messaging and communication is more important than ever.

Don’t be a Boris. Be clear, and be caring, and carry on innovating in order to inspire.

2) Tech isn’t the issue. Trust and transparency is the issue. 

Whatever tech benefits mankind, will be adopted. As long as mankind believe the people behind it. Trust has to be built. Transparency has to be shown. And clarity in both is key. 

3) This is the perfect time to set a new standard as a brand.

Create a new normal that can become part of your DNA, and set you apart. What is your opportunity to evolve and differentiate? How can you show love in the time of Corona?

4) Appeal to human needs.

While life is back to basics, what do you offer to make it better? And/or what do you offer for the future? This is the time focus on your meaning like never before.

Don’t stay alert. Stay relevant.